Crafting Crumbs: Summer Cards - simple and not so!

I don't know if anyone else has a lot of friends with birthdays in the summer, but I have been flooded with them - happily so. I love celebrating someone else's birthday . But the down side of needed more than one or two cards is that the creativity does not always line up with the need. Tell me you can relate to that...
I will share a way I pushed myself through in a later post,but first I want to share these four cards that could not be more different, and cover a wide variety of occasions!

This first one is a simple thinking of you card. The background design is from Totally Jamie.

Design by Totally Jamie

The papers are from Paper Temptress and the flower layers were run through an embossing dot pattern (Embossalicious petite dot) and layered with pop dots. My goal was to make it cheery. The basic design of the center flower is from Birds Cards. I just copied it a few times, making each one smaller so I could get a layered look. Then the flowers were embossed with a dot folder and assembled using pop dots. Simple, easy, and it makes me happy to look at it. Hopefully the recipient will feel the same way :)

Papers from Paper Temptress - Pop Tone, Sparkle and Mica

The second card is also simple. The design is from Birds Cards. Birds files cut beautifully every time, especially with the Silver Bullet Professional Cutter. And the card stock is of course from Paper Temptress. This birthday card was for a male, so kept all of the frilly stuff off it which is SO hard for me! I need to work at embellishing male cards in different ways!

More Paper Temptress Pop Tones

Side view with pop dots

The third card is a combination of all things easy and together they make a striking card. I used a siimple pinked edge circle pattern for the spirelli circles. I love doing spirelli - it's relaxing. I just used a variegated metallic thread and wrapped it around the edges for that pop of color. The center is a Prima embellishment that I have had for ages. (Yes I am trying to use up the stash!!)

Closeup of the spirella wrap with metallic thread . The pinked edges are inked

with a marker to give them a little more depth.

The greeting was simply printed, but could be stamped as well. Then all were layered on top and - DONE!! This congratulations message was for my daughter up in Fresno who just secured a full time teaching job - and although I think she might have preferred the lower grades, she was "blessed" with sixth graders! Actually I think they were blessed to get her - but the challenge is that she was hired on Monday morning, back to school night was that evening, and school started on Wednesday! Yikes.....
I know she will be up to the challenge and am excited for her - so it was the best way I had to let her know!

The fourth card was inspired from a store bought card I have had for ages. It has foiled swirls coming out from the center - all in different colors with some glitter and it's just really pretty. I wanted to duplicate the variety of colors and make it look magical.

The store bought inspiration!

I was going through a stack of papers that I haven't used in a while and found this holographic vinyl. It is made by Duck Brand and I thought it would be perfect. I have been collecting files from Miss Kate's Cuttables, and she has a variety of flourishes, so I used one of her sets, took one design and mirrored it and welded it to give me the center piece and added anotherwirl on top. It sparkles in vibrant colors depending on how the light reflects.. I just love how it looks. I printed the "happy birthday" first and then applied the vinyl. Then just added little rhinestones to accent the swirls. I will definitely play with this Duck Fireworks pattern again - it was too much fun. This card went to a very special friend celebrating her 70th birthday - and I am not naming names! :)